IT’S BUDGET DAY! Exciting times today in the Senate, where our elected representatives are holding six hours of debate and votes on at least five budgets. The votes include budget resolutions from President Barack Obama (well, Sen. Jeff Sessions’s interpretation of it), House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, Sen. Pat Toomey, Sen. Rand Paul and the Senate tea party trio of Mike Lee, Jim DeMint and Rand Paul. None of them will pass, of course.

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--Budget Dems put together quick background hits on budget resolutions from Paul and Toomey. Spoiler alert: The Democrats use phrases like “truly radical” and “ideologically driven.” On Toomey: http://1.usa.gov/JRqbBX. On Paul: http://1.usa.gov/IWFhCi

BUT DEMS DON’T HAVE A PLAN — While Democrats will have their fun voting down GOP budgets today, some centrist Democrats are worried that their party hasn’t come up with a long-term plan of dealing with the debt and spending. Democratic leadership insists last summer’s debt-ceiling deal serves as a budget for this year, but centrists aren’t comfortable with that idea. “Sure, I have a problem with [failing to offer a budget],” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “As a former governor, my responsibility was to put a budget forward and balance it.” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) lamented that the budget process has broken down. “I think we need to rewrite the Budget Act,” he said. The POLITICO story: http://politi.co/L47tTQ

Happy Wednesday and welcome to PULSE, where we could think of much better things to do than study up on budget resolutions. Yet, here we are.

“And tidal waves couldn’t save the PULSE from Californication.”

TODAY ON POLITICO PRO:

--BISHOPS: CHANGE CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE POLICY — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in formal comments filed with HHS, said the Obama administration still requires employers, religious or not, to cover contraceptives. http://politico.pro/J6UIMQ.

--BENNET PUSHED FOR MORATORIUM ON FDA MOBILE APPS GUIDANCE – Tuesday morning, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Col.) told reporters that he would try to include language in the user fee bill that he had proposed — and withdrawn — during the HELP markup to put an 18-month moratorium on an FDA draft guidance on its regulation of mobile medical apps. That didn’t go over well at FDA. http://politico.pro/KrFWkh

--THEN HARKIN/ENZI POST NEW USER FEE BILL LAST NIGHT – It contains a few negotiated changes since the HELP committee marked up an earlier version last month, including language regarding FDA’s regulation of mobile medical apps. It doesn’t include the moratorium Bennet was seeking, but it does require a multi-agency study to be provided to the HELP committee before FDA finalizes its draft guidance on medical apps. And Bennet, who said on Tuesday that the user fee negotiations were “a singularly and uniquely good process,” was fine with that. A statement provided by his staff said “Senator Bennet is happy he was able to work with his colleagues under the leadership of Chairman Harkin and ranking member Enzi to find consensus and a path forward that promotes innovation and patient safety.” Case closed. And, more importantly, the new bill, which will include other changes from a manager’s amendment — like track and trace! — before it’s brought to the floor. The bill: http://politico.pro/L4ppxJ

--BILL NOW ON CALENDAR — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put the bill on the calendar last night and said he hopes he doesn’t have to file cloture on it. “This is a truly bipartisan bill,” he said, and he suggested he would like to bring it to the floor next week. Widespread objections to starting debate on the FDA bill are not expected. But all it takes is one senator to force a vote.

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ACA EXPANDS IMMIGRANT COVERAGE — The law explicitly excludes illegal immigrants, but advocates say states have good reason to get uninsured legal residents covered when new provisions kick in starting 2014. The POLITICO story: http://politi.co/L4jLvw

DEBT-CEILING FIGHT ALREADY STARTING — You know what we haven’t had in a while? A fight over the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner and Harry Reid know how much we’ve all missed it, so they set the stage yesterday for early 2013, when the debt ceiling will have to be raised again. Boehner, in a speech on Tuesday afternoon, said he’ll insist that the next debt-limit deal include cuts greater than the debt-limit increase. Reid fired back, telling reporters that Boehner’s position will make the GOP even more unlikable than they are today. It was certainly a surprise to Hill Republicans that Boehner would already lay out demands for the debt ceiling and expiring tax provisions, but there’s concern that waiting until the end of 2012 to deal with these issues could make things even messier than expected. A pair of retiring moderates — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) — said the timing is right, but Reid doesn’t see much opportunity to coordinate with Republicans on big items before November. The POLITICO story: http://politico.pro/JRB5aJ

…MEANWHILE, CATHOLIC SCHOOL DUMPS COVERAGE — Franciscan University of Steubenville is dropping its student health insurance plan, and it’s putting the blame squarely on the contraceptive coverage rule. “We will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life,” according to a notice from the school’s administration. Further, the Ohio school of about 2,700 said the ACA’s new coverage minimums would have also “effectively” doubled students’ premium costs in the 2012-13 school year. LifeNews.com said Franciscan appears to be the first school to drop student health insurance as a direct response to the administration’s contraceptive coverage rule. The Franciscan notice: http://bit.ly/KHwoQn. The LifeNews story: http://bit.ly/JGE44p.

ACCRETIVE CALLS IN THE BIG GUNS — The medical debt collector whose practices have recently been questioned by members of Congress, the Minnesota attorney general and The New York Times announced that it will convene a panel of health policy leaders to develop a process for implementing national standards on how hospitals and care providers deal with patients on their medical bills. Interesting timing, sure, and Accretive has quite a panel in its corner. Former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt will chair the group, and he’ll be joined by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. “In order to assure hospitals remain financially viable and available to patients, they must assist these same patients in making financial arrangements for payment,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Hospitals desire to do that in a sensitive and appropriate way; however, currently there are no clear standards to help guide their efforts.” The Accretive announcement: http://bit.ly/JckIqq

ALSO TODAY – The Senate HELP Committee holds a 10 a.m. hearing, “Identify Opportunities for Health Care Delivery System Reform: Lessons from the Front Line.” The agenda: http://bit.ly/JVlrXf

THE DAY AFTER ROMNEY REPEALS — What would happen to the 2.5 million young adults and the 60,000 people in federal high-risk pools who would find themselves without coverage if a President Mitt Romney repealed the entire law? That was the question posed to Romney health adviser Tevi Troy on CNN last night. Troy said Romney has “a very aggressive plan” to fix the health care system, and he argued the uninsured who really need emergency care would receive it under EMTALA. Besides, he added, the ACA leaves plenty of people without insurance. But to Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, the answer boils down to this: “People who have insurance today would lose it under the Romney plan,” she said.

A DUBIOUS MILESTONE — The average health care costs for a typical family of four covered by a PPO cracked $20,000 for the first time this year in the annual Medical Index. The exact average was $20,728, which was a 6.9 percent increase from 2011. Families “may be surprised” to learn that their costs are so high — that’s because their own out-of-pocket costs average $3,470, in addition to $5,114 in payroll deductions, according to Milliman. Now, for the slightly good news: The 6.9 percent increase between 2011 and 2012 was the lowest in the index’s 12 years. The Milliman numbers: http://bit.ly/L3hT67

GRAPHIC OF THE DAY – NPR has a nice little graphic that captures how much health care programs have grown as a proportion of the federal budget since 1962. You sort of knew it had happened, but it’s interesting to see that part of the bar chart swell up — especially since Medicare and Medicaid weren’t even around in 1962. Now health care is a quarter of the budget. The graphic: http://n.pr/JQIdEg

TOO MUCH ASTHMA – America has a breathing problem. Or so the CDC reported on Tuesday, when it released 2010 survey results indicating nearly 30 million Americans had received an asthma diagnosis in their lifetimes, costing billions of dollars a year in medical costs, lost productivity and premature death. According to the survey, asthma rates shot up 14.8 percent between 2001 and 2010. Among those diagnosed with asthma in 2010, 10.1 million were children. http://1.usa.gov/Jh8My5

WHAT WE’RE READING, by Jennifer Haberkorn

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander is asking President Obama in a WSJ op-ed to trade Medicaid for K-12 education. The feds take 100 percent control of Medicaid and the states get all control of the public schools. http://on.wsj.com/KNb6AJ

A Boston doctor takes to the NYT op-ed page to express concerns about the CMS competitive bidding process for Medicare medical equipment. He worries that quality-of-care measures aren't being considered strongly enough. http://nyti.ms/JbHXB3

An FDA advisory panel on Tuesday asked the agency to let an HIV test be sold in stores so consumers don't have to go to a health facility to get tested for the virus, the WSJ reports. The test is made by OraSure Technologies. http://on.wsj.com/KuVmTv

The Concord Monitor's editorial page advises the New Hampshire Senate to vote down an attempt to pass a tea party-backed bill to join a health care compact, which would undo the national health law. http://bit.ly/J7sH7M

The Boston Herald editorial board supports some of Gov. Deval Patrick's health reforms but warns that he should beef up his medical malpractice provisions and medical spending targets. http://bit.ly/L4ROUb

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About The Author

Jason Millman is POLITICO Pro’s Deputy Health care reporter. He’s on his second tour of duty at POLITICO after a stint at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog and has covered health care since graduating from Boston University with a journalism degree in 2008.